154 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Sept. 
fragments of basalt and occasionally masses which approach in size to 
small flows. The ash-beds are thickest in close proximity to a turn in the 
creek, and here they strike north-east and dip south-east. They continue 
up-stream as far as a deep washout which comes in from the terrace on the 
west. Here overlying the ash are shales, weathering rusty brown, with 
impure lignite, striking north-east and dipping south-east 30°, and lying- 
right across the creek. As these are followed up the gully formed by the 
washout they pass up into shales and dark-green sands which weather brown, 
and with direction changing gradually till the strike is north-west and the 
dip south-west 35°-40°. Higher in the series a bed of sandy shale, 2 ft. 
thick, occurs, and the exposure ends at the top of the gully with a develop¬ 
ment of sandy clays and sands, well stratified and alternating, the sands 
lighter in colour and the clays of a much darker tint. These are covered 
with terrace gravels. 
Farther up Sloven's Creek there is an occurrence of greenish sand, but 
its relations are obscured with slips; and then there is a return to ash- 
beds, which are cut by two well-marked basaltic intrusions. The first of 
these is a dyke, 25 ft. wide, striking east and west and dipping north 60°. 
The second intrusion, 6 ft. to 8 ft. wide, is a little farther on, and strikes 
north-west and dips north-east 50° ; it thus partakes somewhat of the 
nature of a sill. It crosses the first dyke a little east of the railway, but 
the junction is covered with slip material. The ash into which these dykes 
have been intruded is rudely stratified, the layers striking north-west and 
dipping south-west 30°. A few chains farther up-stream the occurrence 
ends with concretionary greensands striking south-east and dipping south¬ 
west. These lie right on the greywacke. The rapidly changing dip and 
strike of the beds is no doubt to be attributed to volcanic action. Just 
opposite the dykes a small tributary called Puffer’s Creek comes in on the 
east bank of Sloven’s Creek, and in its lower course there is a good develop¬ 
ment of these sedimentaries and their associated volcanics. 
Lying on the greywackes are concretionary greensands striking north¬ 
west and dipping south-west 40°. These have a thickness of 300 ft., 
approximately, and are succeeded by ash-beds containing irregular veins of 
calcite. Over these lies a lava-flow, which shows a tendency to pillow- 
structure. Then follow sandy beds without any well-marked stratification 
in the lower portions but becoming concretionary towards their upper 
limit. These sands are distinctly glauconitic and weather brown, and 
become whiter in the parts which have long been exposed to the air. They 
strike north-west and dip south-west 45°. They are cut by dykes, some 
striking north-east and others crossing them at right angles. At the mouth 
of the creek and in the main stream in close proximity they are capped 
unconformably with somewhat well-stratified gravels and sandy beds. 
These contain numerous rounded fragments of marl and bryozoan lime¬ 
stone, similar to that at Castle Hill and in the tuff in Broken River near 
the mouth of Sloven’s Creek. From the position of these gravels it is evident 
that they could not have come from the vicinity of Castle Hill, but must 
have been derived either from some limestone deposit of similar nature 
now buried up by moraine or other detrital matter or from a formerly 
existent layer which has now been entirely removed. 
During my recent examination I was unable to find fossils in the Sloven’s 
Creek beds, but some years ago, while the railway was under construction, 
I came across a small outcrop of shell-bearing material lying close alongside 
the coal referred to above. This contained specimens of Polinices , but I 
was unable to identify the species to which they belonged. 
